The invention relates to a method and arrangement for severing individual image segments from an image band and for the sorting of customer orders comprised of image band segments each including one or more image sections (e.g., photographic prints). More particularly, the invention relates to the control of cutting and sorting means in response to the reading of specially provided marks on the image band indicative of the end of a customer order and indicative of the individual image sections to be severed from the band.
In most printers of modern construction, to sever the individual image sections, there are provided on rolls of paper one cut mark per image section and spaced therefrom an order-separating mark at the end of each customer order. The cut marks are detected by an automatic cutting arrangement and are used to control the cutting operation. The end-of-order mark serves to effect separation of individual customer orders, usually in the following steps:
The photoelectrically or mechanically detected end-of order mark effects an interruption of the cutting operation. Thereafter, the accumulated stack of severed image sections (e.g., prints) are manually removed from the accumulating location, the number of image sections is counted for invoicing purposes and the automatic cutting arrangement is reactivated for the next customer order.
A problem with this method is that with the present state of the marking art, weakly formed marks are not detected and dirt on the image section or surface defects may be read as being proper marks.
Defective detection of a cut mark leads to double image sections or to chopped up image sections. Defective detection of an end-of-order mark causes the image sections of the second order to be stacked on top of the images of the first order, or else results in the splitting up of a single order into two stacks, and can result in improper insertion of the next-following order into a print wallet or envelope, if a visual comparison between the image sections (prints) and the film is not performed. With automated processing, both types of detection failures lead to serious operating malfunctions, such as uninterrupted stacking of image sections (prints), order mix-ups and splitting, and invoicing errors.